1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of public-key cryptography. More specifically, it is directed to a combined and improved public key encryption and digital signature scheme.
2. Background of the Invention
Cryptography essentially provides confidentiality, authentication, integrity and non-repudiation for communication between different parties over public communication channels.
In a public-key scheme, each user has a key pair consisting of a public key that is made publicly available, and a private key that is kept secret. The two keys are related by a hard one-way function, so as to make it infeasible to determine the private key from the public key. The public-key scheme allows a signature in the form of a digital signature to accompany a message.
In the public-key environment, there are preferably three major processes. First, there is the certification process. A certificate authority creates a certificate that binds a user identity to the public key. A certificate repository provides a database of certificates where the public can access and retrieve the public key information of participants. In addition, there is a registration authority that acts as an assistant to the certificate authority. In essence, the registration authority is used to validate the binding. The second process is the encryption scheme that essentially converts a plaintext message into a ciphertext message. The third process is a digital signature process. The present invention relates specifically to the latter process and how it may be combined with the encryption process.
A digital signature is a cryptographic primitive that provides a means for a user or an entity to bind its identity to a piece of information. A digital signature of a message is a sequence of bytes dependent on some secret known only to the signer, and, additionally, on the content of the message being signed. Such signatures must be verifiable, if a dispute arises as to whether a party signed a document. The process of signing entails transforming the message and a key unique to a particular user into a tag called a digital signature. A digital signature may be used to prove the identity of the sender and the integrity of data. To verify the digital signature, a recipient of a digitally signed message can use a verification rule associated with the digital signature scheme. Any attempt to modify the contents of the message or forge a signature will be detected when the signature is verified.
Each of the above stages requires a certain degree of undesirable computational processing and a certain degree of byte-size overhead associated in the transmission of a communication to make the overall public-key process secure.
Therefore, there remains an on going desire to reduce the additional byte and processing overhead associated with the public-key system while at the same time, not reducing the effectiveness of the public-key system.